Terms of use

Draft, October 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and Oat [legal name], the company that makes Oat, when you use the Oat website, its demo or its pilot. By using Oat, you agree to them. Please read them, and the privacy notice, which explains how Oat handles your information.

What Oat is, and what it isn't

Oat is software. It helps people and businesses handling an Ontario Small Claims Court claim on their own, whether they are making the claim or answering one: you write your claim or your Defence and answer questions, and Oat keeps it organized and puts your answers on the court's official forms.

• Oat is not a law firm, and it is not licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. It gives legal information, not legal advice.
• Using Oat doesn't make anyone your lawyer or paralegal. Nobody at Oat reviews your claim or tells you what to do.
• Oat can't tell you whether to make a claim, what to claim, or how your claim might turn out.

If you want advice, a lawyer or licensed paralegal can help. The Law Society of Ontario can help you find one.

Oat and its founder

Oat was started by Marty Mikhail, a lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. Oat is a separate business from the founder's law practice.

• Using Oat doesn't make the founder, or the founder's law firm, your lawyer. The founder doesn't give legal advice through Oat.
• The founder and the people who work on Oat don't read what's in your files. They look at your information only if you ask for help and agree to it, to fix a problem or keep Oat secure, or if the law requires it. They never use it for anything else, or share it with the founder's law firm or its clients. Anyone who works on Oat must agree in writing to keep your information confidential.
• Oat doesn't refer people to the founder or the founder's law firm, and doesn't take fees for referring people to anyone.
• Because Oat isn't your lawyer, what you enter in Oat isn't a conversation with your lawyer. It may not be protected the way those conversations are (this protection is called "solicitor-client privilege"). Oat keeps your information private, as the privacy notice explains.

What you are responsible for

• Your words. You write your answers and your story. Oat puts them on the forms as you wrote them and doesn't add facts. What you file with the court is yours, and it has to be true.
• Checking your forms. Read every form Oat prepares before you sign, serve or file it. If something is wrong, change your answers and prepare the forms again.
• Your deadlines. Oat works out dates from the court rules and what you tell it, and can email you reminders. These are there to help: an email can be late or go missing, and the court's rules and deadlines apply either way. If a deadline matters, you can check it with the court office or a lawyer or paralegal.
• Your copies. Keep your own copies of your forms, documents and anything the court sends you.

The court's forms, rules and fees

Oat uses the official forms published by the Government of Ontario and fills in their blanks without changing them. The forms, the court rules, interest rates and court fees can change. Oat works to keep up with them, but can't promise that everything is always current. The court office decides whether to accept a document.

Your own claims only

You can use Oat for your own claim, or for a claim of a business you own or work for. Oat isn't for agencies that pursue money owed to others, or for anyone who handles other people's claims as a business. Only lawyers and licensed paralegals can represent other people for a fee.

Your account

• You sign in with a link Oat emails you. Keep your email account secure: anyone who can open your email can sign in to Oat as you.
• An account is for one person. Please give a real email address, and tell Oat at hello@oat.ca if you think someone else has used your account.
• What you enter stays yours. Oat uses it only to run Oat for you, as the privacy notice explains. You can delete a file, or your account and all its files, at any time.

Apps you connect

You can connect an app, such as an AI assistant, to your files. You choose the app, what it can see and whether it can suggest changes, and you can disconnect it at any time. Oat doesn't run or check these apps and isn't responsible for them or for what they tell you. An app can only suggest: you decide whether to accept each change, and only you, inside Oat, can approve forms, accept an offer, settle or consent. Oat can stop an app from connecting if it misuses Oat.

Using Oat fairly

Please don't use Oat to make a claim you know is false, to harass or threaten anyone, to break the law, or to get into, overload or copy Oat's systems. Oat can suspend or close an account that does.

The pilot

Oat is free during the pilot. It may change, add or remove features, or end the pilot. If Oat plans to charge for anything, it will tell you before you have to pay, and you can choose not to. If the pilot ends, Oat will tell you by email first, so you can download your forms.

Limits

Oat is provided as it is. Oat works to make it accurate and available, but can't promise it will always be available, free of mistakes, or right for your claim. To the extent the law allows, Oat isn't responsible for the result of your claim, for a deadline that is missed, or for a court office refusing a document, and Oat's total responsibility to you is limited to [amount].

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002, or any other law that can't be changed by agreement.

Changes to these terms

If Oat changes these terms, it will post the new version here with its date and, for important changes, email you before they apply. If you keep using Oat after that, the new terms apply. If you don't agree, you can stop using Oat and delete your account.

Ending

You can stop using Oat at any time, and delete your account from your files page. Oat can close an account that breaks these terms, and will tell you why unless the law prevents it.

The law that applies

These terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and of Canada that apply there. Any dispute about them goes to the courts of Ontario.

English and French

These terms are available in English and French. Both versions are equally valid.

Contact

Email hello@oat.ca, or write to Oat [legal name and mailing address].